Disclosure: I’ve traveled and I’ve lived abroad in two different countries and been dozens of places outside of my ‘home’.
But I don’t get this obsession people have with travel being the uber alles thing you can do and how if you don’t do it all the time or as much as possible you are a ignorant incurious person. I don’t see my travel as being this amazing thing… it was just a nice thing that I did and frankly I don’t remember very much about it and what I do remember I don’t think is a more important memory than lots of other things I did in life.
I don’t think I am superior or ‘worldly’ because of it compared to someone who has never traveled abroad. But it is an extremely common belief/attitude I encounter on a regular basis and it confuses the hell out of me. I’ve met plenty of people that just go on the attack when you don’t want to ‘exchange amazing travel stories’ with them or daydream with them about all the places you’d like to go. There are some places I’d like to go, but again, it’s not a big deal to me that I see it as some big important part of my life and I certain do not condescend towards people who aren’t as ‘well traveled’ as I am like it’s some contest or achievement.
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When I was more active on dating sites in my 20s, I encountered a lot of people who held up travel as this big, important thing in their lives. I recall at least one profile where a guy said, “Love of travel is a must.”
At first, I was annoyed - travel takes money and time, which I don’t have. Why limit potential dates in that way?
But then I realized, maybe that’s the point? Someone with the leisure time and spending money can easily filter dates to just those in their socio-economic status by making frequent recreational travel a requirement. My poor ass never had a chance.
“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.”
travel is expensive and cumbersome and energy intensive. if your worried about the roof over your head travel is the last thing on your mind and it gives pause for those up us trying to maintain a small energy footprint.
The more I travel (37 countries on four continents) the more I realize everyone is the same. For me, it’s like a mini-version of the overview effect.
Everyone has a hand wrap (pita, taco, wrap, sandwich).
Everyone has their customs that bleed into public life (religious, secular, religious-cum-secular)
Everyone has to take care of children
Everyone has a grocery store
Everyone likes to drink a hot liquid out of a mug. Everyone likes to drink a cold liquid out of a glass
Everyone has their pockets of disengaged youth who lash out at society, “normalcy” and the status quo
it’s not a weird, scary world. We are all people. We all live here. The content of my pita might be different from what’s in your taco, but it’s basically the same thing. The difference between my town and one a few kilometers away is not that much larger than one on the other side of the world. We are all people living our lives.
The environnement is quite different though. That’s what a lot of people are after. Environment and architecture. Those vary greatly.
Drinking warm beer is not normal
Heh I meant coffee or tea
Thank you for this post. I’ve never been a fan of traveling, but do enjoy day trips. I love how I have everything setup at my home and always want to retire there at the end of the day. Nothing is better or more comfortable than my custom setup, especially since traveling to certain places can cause me major inconvenience due to health issues.
I’d probably be more likely to see places farther away if teleporting existed. Traveling long hours is horrible in itself.
I’ve thought about this a bit and think it comes down to mental wiring. Some people focus more on “peak” experiences, but I focus more on “average” day-to-day experiences. I live in a major city, so it’s not like there’s any shortage of activities to choose from.
I personally dislike travel and find it to be expensive and stressful. I rarely travel for leisure/tourism but do travel to see non-local friends and family. I find it’s helpful to have a few days of downtime between work and travel, both before and after the trip, to give myself an opportunity to actually recharge.
For me, travel is a luxury. Even if it’s not luxurious, it’s still more expensive than being at home. I’m not rich by any means. So, it’s special.
My ADHD prevents me from sitting still for more than a few minutes, even short road trips are torturous. To add to that, my driving limit due to my disability is about 2 hours and I physically can’t drive at night. I also can’t sleep during the day time.
How TF people survive 12+ hour flights is a mystery to me
The point is that after you’ve travelled yourself, you will no longer believe anyone who tries to tell you that people on the other side of the border are evil flesh eaters.
Maybe you wouldn’t have believed this before either, in which case travelling wasn’t as transformative for you as it has been for others, but that’s the primary reason.
Fully agree. I love my gf to pieces and for her traveling is what makes her, her. She’s a minimalist consumer and talks about the environment all the time and bikes everywhere. She knows that flying polutes enormously but she can’t help it. I like endurance sports and I find enough excitement right here around home and within let’s say a 250km radius. She travels alone 3 weeks per year and she says she needs more. I stopped trying to figure it out.
I think advertising did it. Advertising told everybody that it’s the greatest thing so now it’s the greatest thing.
Travelling show you that “normal” at home is not normal.
Travel Europe for a few weeks and get back to the US and realize just how sick and fat Americans are. And Europeans walk after dark, while Americans rarely walk, and never after dark.
Part of it is a different signaling of wealth. Goods outside of real estate get cheaper all the time while experiences don’t.
Part of it is a way to signal willingness to experience the world differently. Saying that you’ve been in a place and experienced it gives greater authority on that place even if the trip is a curated experience.
Compared to some bumpkin who’s never been more than 100 miles from home, though, you definitely have more perspective on the world.
This is the biggest selling point of travel for me. Traveling expands your worldview and allows you to see firsthand other people and cultures. To realize that all humans are the same no matter where we’re from.
I’ve never met anyone snobby about travel, but the experience and worldview is why I’m passionate about it and think everyone should do it at least a little. Empathy is severely lacking in the world.
I mean it is all in the internet.
What if the non-traveler had an internet connection and wasn’t mentally incompetent? What if the person who travels just does it so they can be hedonistic somewhere nobody knows them (as it tends to happen, like Brits in Spain and all the “eat, pray, love” girlies)? Sometimes it’s a cultural experience, most of the time it isn’t, from what I’ve seen.
It is definitely possible to travel and not experience culture.
Thinking you understand culture byecuwse you have the internet is sort of admitting your that type of person.
The problem with talking to randoms online is the things they don’t say because it’s their normal. Experiencing those differences in normals is what is being discussed here.
When I was in school this was a literally social studies topic discuss many times over all the years we learned about other cultures which really reinforces that some people dont pay enough attention to receive any value from travel.
That doesn’t mean other can’t or don’t.
Yup, as a British immigrant to Spain there is precisely 1 other British person who lives here that I talk to … most I’ve met have zero interest in the language, culture, or people outside of touristy things.
Meanwhile, I’m working in Vietnam at the moment, and my Spanish coworker’s who came with me have the same attitude towards Vietnam.
So, I think most people just aren’t interested in the realities of different lived experiences of others. Sometimes in conversation I’ll dangle a lure for someone to ask me about an atypical part of my life, and 9 times out of 10 they show no curiosity.
This is very interesting to read, I thought I was alone in this, I do not get excited when I travel, being with friends and family is what matters, not where I am, I have traveled many times (been to four continents and more than 10 countries at least once) but never really felt much about the traveling part, and I never get FOMO when someone tells me about their trip. But everyone seem to want to travel all the time.
I do like trying new things a lot, going to different restaurants, eating and drinking different types of food, testing different forms of entertainment or sports, and so on, learning about someone’s experience, I just do not care for traveling.
But I do believe in diversity and that we should all get to experience many cultures so we can understand each other, seeing is believing, I think more people need to experience other perspectives.
That said, I still do not find traveling abroad appealing, I’m not against it, I’m just weirdly neutral on the topic, while my friends dream of traveling.
Finally someone like me. I’m going through these comments reading things about wanting friends in other countries, having an experience, whatever.
And I’m like, I worked so hard to be comfortable at home, why would I spend 4 figures to leave? I absolutely have bought things 5 years ago that I still use and enjoy.
I’m lucky enough to live in a city with tonnnnns of museums, food from all over, and cultural hotspots in different neighborhoods.
Life is so absolutely chaotic these days that I’d rather just relax at home with the things I worked hard to get.
And of course, all that said, I am going on vacation in a week to a place further away than I’ve ever been before, so, ya know. Maybe once every few years is fine, but I’m not going to foam over it the whole time between.
